Maureen Lipman has revealed that she consulted a therapist to cope with the pressures of fame.

The actress told Radio Times magazine that she sought help during the 1980s after a member of the audience heckled her during a performance of the play Messiah.

“Someone got up one night and screamed at me. It was as if all the voices of disapproval came at me at once. I was moving house, had two children under five, couldn’t sleep and lost it for a while.

“I saw this very lovely old Jungian [therapist] for 15 months, and having made him laugh throughout each session I’d leave, dress up as a chicken in a sitcom and realise, ‘This is my therapy’.”

She also disclosed how the attention she received after playing the character of Beattie in the famous television commercials “went to her head”.

She said: “There’s a moment when you are bigger than you thought you would be and that’s when your character comes out. When I did the Beattie ads for BT I considered myself a serious actress, so it was a shock when people in restaurants greeted me with ‘Brr, brr’. It went to my head a bit.”